1,775 Of 4,896 (36%) MPs And MLAs In India Face Criminal Cases

1,775 Of 4,896 (36%) MPs And MLAs In India Face Criminal Cases

In what arguably is a botch on the Indian parliamentary democracy and the attempts at decriminalization of politics, the Central government has informed the Supreme Court that at least 36% of all of the MPs and MLAs in the country have criminal cases against them that are in trial stages.

Decriminalization of Indian Politics

The Centre informed that 1,765 MPs and MLAs out of a total of 4,896 throughout the country were facing criminal cases.

Details of ongoing criminal cases against lawmakers have, for the first time, been collected by the Union government and they have been fast-tracked and trials to be initiated within a year.

Special courts to try cases of MPs and MLAs

This information was given by the Centre to the Supreme court via an affidavit which also contained the state-wise data of pending cases against MPs and MLAs. Those cases will be transferred to special courts where trial proceedings would be held on a day-to-day basis.

Uttar Pradesh Ranks Highest in Criminal MPs and MLAs

The figures filed by the Centre shows that Uttar Pradesh ranks the highest among lawmakers facing criminal cases, followed by Tamil Nadu and Bihar. Next in terms of numbers are West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. Data from Maharashtra and Goa have been excluded because no information had been received by the Centre.

Election Commission nor the Centre had any Data about Criminal Cases against MPs and MLAs

The Centre was asked to gather the data and send it to the Supreme Court after the apex court found that neither the Election Commission nor the Centre had any information about the number of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs. The Supreme Court sought the data to ascertain the number of special courts that need to be set up for the fast trial of such cases. The cases would be heard within a year as decided by the Supreme Court in 2014. The Centre was asked by the Supreme Court to set up special courts that would only deal with cases against MPs and MLAs.

The Supreme Court of India

‘Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)’

Following the 2014 elections, 1,581 cases were pending against lawmakers, NGO ‘Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)’ had alleged, following which the Centre decided to form 12 special fast-track courts throughout India for trials of cases against lawmaker on a speedy basis.

However, following the revelation of the increased number of such cases, 3,045 compared to 1,581, the Centre would now have to set up about double the number of courts that it had previously decided on.

The directions of the Supreme Court to the Centre to collect the case details against lawmakers was issued on a petition of one Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay who had claimed that the number of such pending cases was 13,500.

12 special fast-track courts to be set up soon

The 12 special courts that were under process to be set up would become functional very soon, informed the Center to the Supreme Court. Notices of constituting all of them have been already issued by the respective high courts.

Cases against 228 MPs facing criminal cases would be tried in two special courts to be set up in Delhi while the rest of the 10 courts would be set up in 10 states — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, UP and West Bengal. Each of the courts would handle cases of at least 65 MLAs each. All of the above-mentioned states have more than 65 MLAs each facing criminal cases.